What options do pregnant people have in Ohio amid abortion bans?

Each morning, registered nurse Barbara Brown walks into work at the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, one of the few full-service abortion clinics in Ohio.

 

She passes anti-abortion protestors, most of whom are regulars, as well as the clinic’s escorts marked by pink vests and rainbow umbrellas who accompany patients into the building. 

 

Brown originally planned on working in emergency medicine for her nursing career, but said she experienced a lack of respect working in ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Brown said a woman experiencing an ectopic pregnancy came to the emergency room and the doctors were unsure if they could legally help her.

 

Brown said she knew she had to do something after Roe v. Wade was overturned, so she left the emergency room to work at an abortion clinic, which she describes as the best job she has ever had.

 

 

“​​It’s just a new passion that I feel like I really need to help out with because there’s been so many people already that, like, lives that I’ve touched and stories that I’ve heard,” Brown said. “You never know what somebody’s going through and it’s not your business.”

 

After the US Supreme Court’s June decision sent determining abortion rights back to the states, Ohio instituted Senate Bill 23, better known as the “heartbeat law” that Gov. Mike DeWine signed back in 2019. This law prohibits abortion if there is a detectable heartbeat, and a federal judge allowed it to go into effect immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned. There are no exceptions for rape or incest under this law.

 

Fetal cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated that a fetal heartbeat can be detected once “the chambers of the heart have been developed” which occurs approximately in 17 to 20 weeks of gestation. Before this, ACOG stated it is inaccurate to call the cardiac activity a heartbeat because the ultrasound is “translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity into the sound that we recognize as a heartbeat.”

 

SB 23 has now been blocked again, this time by Judge Christian Jenkins from the Hamilton Court of Common Pleas who granted a preliminary injunction against the law. Litigation is ongoing as the state appealed the preliminary injunction, according to the ACLU. 

 

Abortion in Ohio is currently legal up to 22 weeks. After the November election, the Ohio Supreme Court maintained a 4-3 Republican majority and it could issue a decision on abortion rights next year. 

 

When a person finds out they are pregnant, there are often a lot of thoughts swirling around their mind and many decisions to be made. From abortion to adoption to parenting, pregnant people have many options to consider. But in Ohio, what do these options look like?

 

Who is working to reduce abortion?

Ohio Right to Life, a pro-life non-profit organization, introduced a bill in March called the Human Life Protection Act that would ban abortions in Ohio at any stage. Peter Range, the CEO of ORTL, said the bill has no exceptions for rape or incest, but it does include an exception for ectopic pregnancies which are never viable and a threat to the pregnant person’s life. 

 

The Ohio House of Representatives have not yet moved forward on the proposed bill, as Range said that leadership in the House and in the Senate are “looking to focus more on making sure the heartbeat law is as strong as it can be.” At this time, Range said that ORTL is primarily focused on abortion and does not have policy statements on contraception. 

 

“We are going to continue to try to advocate for the reality that we believe every life, again from the moment of conception, deserves what every human deserves, and that is the right to life,” Range said. 

 

Ohio has about 200 pregnancy help centers that provide parenting classes, referrals for prenatal care and baby supplies, according to ORTL. 

 

Gov. DeWine issued an executive order in August that directed some of the $13 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to organizations that provide pregnancy prevention services. Some of these organizations include The Brightside Project, The Father’s House Inc. and Rosemary’s Babies Company, which provides pregnancy services to “at-risk mothers, ages 13-19 in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont Counties.”

 

The executive order stated that some of the purposes of the TANF program are to “prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies” and “encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.”

 

The Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program uses money from the TANF program to provide pregnancy and parenting services that “promote childbirth, parenting, and alternatives to abortion,” according to the Ohio Revised Code.

Who is working to expand abortion?

In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Dr. Marcela Azevedo and Dr. Lauren Beene founded Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and sought out other like-minded physicians. With the support of more than 1,000 doctors across Ohio, OPRR published its letter of dissent in the Columbus Dispatch. 

 

“A government that takes away the freedom of women to access critical medical care and threatens physicians with criminal penalties for upholding their oath is un-American,” the dissent letter reads. 

 

Abortion bans do not exclusively affect the work of obstetricians or gynecologists, Azevedo said, they also impact other physicians who have to decide whether or not to prescribe certain drugs because they may be teratogenic, or harmful to a fetus. Azevedo said she does not think there is a role for a lawmaker when it comes to abortion care and that exceptions to abortion bans are not enough. 

 

“We talk about how patients aren’t textbooks, and so if you create one small exception, there are still a variety of ways that people can be harmed,” Azevedo said. “So the question really is, do you want the government to regulate how you receive your health care? And we know that people who are not in healthcare cannot do that efficiently because they don’t understand the nuances of how a person becomes harmed.”

 

 

Today, OPRR is working to codify abortion access in Ohio’s constitution by fundraising to propose an amendment to the state constitution that “enshrines a person’s right to self sovereignty, and that enshrines that our patients can make medical decisions with their medical providers,” Azevedo said.   

 

What does receiving an abortion in Ohio look like?

For those seeking an abortion in Ohio, there are six full-service abortion clinics and three clinics that provide medication abortion services, according to Pro-Choice Ohio.

 

Brown works in one of the six full-service clinics, the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls, where patients can receive surgical care or medication. 

 

Ohio’s abortion laws state that patients seeking abortions must have two appointments that are at least 24 hours apart. Brown said the first appointment can include an ultrasound, bloodwork and a meeting to educate the patient on medication versus surgical abortion. Ohio law also states that the patient must be given information that includes alternatives to abortion. At least 24 hours after the first meeting, the patient may then move forward with the procedure. 

 

Medication abortion can only be used up to approximately nine weeks of gestation. The patient will take one pill with the doctor, and then they will take four other pills 24 to 48 hours later. The first pill is called mifepristone and the second medication is called misoprostol, according to Planned Parenthood. 

 

For an abortion procedure, Brown said the actual procedure lasts about five to 20 minutes. A patient can receive the surgery earlier in the pregnancy up to Ohio’s current 22-week cut-off. Patients will experience bleeding or cramping to varying degrees. 

 

“Everybody should be equal,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, what color you are, who you like, who you don’t like –– everybody should freaking have the same rights, and we don’t.”

 

For those who find out they’re pregnant, what options do they have in Ohio? Abortion is legal up until 22 weeks, and Ohio offers adoption and parenting services. Learn more about who is working to provide options for pregnant people in Ohio here: https://t.co/la48wZhf9W

— Catie Pusateri (@cpusateri13) December 16, 2022